Financial transaction system with integrated electronic messaging, control of marketing data, and user defined charges for receiving messages

• US 7,873,572 B2
• Filed: 02/22/2005
• Issued: 01/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: David C. Reardon
• Original Assignee: David C. Reardon
• Inventors: Reardon, David C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Colbert; Ella
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tran; Hai
• Application Number:
  US11/063,076
• Publication Number:
  US 20050192899A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,156 Days
• Field of Search: 705/39
• US Class Current: 705/39
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/108 Remote banking, e.g. home banking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/14 specially adapted for billing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/28 Pre-payment schemes, e.g. "pay before"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/403 Solvency checks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/42 Confirmation, e.g. check or permission by the legal debtor of payment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/425 using two different networks, one for transaction and one for security confirmation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/16 for devices exhibiting advertisements, announcements, pictures or the like

Abstract

A method of performing financial transactions between users of Summa accounts, each Summa account including an electronic messaging system that provides for crediting and debiting at least one financial account associated with each Summa account. The invention also allows each user to define a schedule of receipt charges associated with the identities of other users to be charged as compensation for accepting delivery of their messages. With the user'"'"'s permission, a record of purchases made from the Summa account may be maintained in a marketing database, increasing the value of use'"'"'s market identity and the corresponding value of receipt charges they user may collect. Major benefits of the invention include, but are not limited to: (1) electronic financial transactions are completed in a more secure manner with appropriate tracking and verification, (2) message recipients receive income from the value of their market identities, and (3) commercial enterprises can more readily identify individuals interested in receiving their commercial offers.

Claims

1. A system for exchanging electronic transactions between user accounts on a designated network, the system comprising:

a server in communication with a plurality of client computers via a network;

a database in communication with the server, the database being configured to store a plurality of user accounts, each user account comprising a message store, user defined transaction criteria, and a financial account;

wherein the user defined transaction criteria comprises at least one receipt criteria including at least one receipt charge; and

wherein each financial account comprises a financial account balance that can be credited and debited by the server;

wherein the server is configured to;

(1) receive, from a client computer, a request to deliver a message, the request being associated with a sender user account, the request comprising a message, a recipient selection criteria, and a sending fee authorized to be debited from a sender user financial account upon delivery of the message,

(2) search the database to identify at least one recipient user account that matches the recipient selection criteria, and for each identified recipient user account;

(3) search the user defined transaction criteria to identify an applicable receipt charge,

(4) process the request using conditional logic, the conditional logic being effective to (i) deny the request if the sender user account is not in the database, (ii) deny the request if the recipient user account is not in the database, (iii) deny the request if the sending fee is less than the applicable receipt charge, (iv) deny the request if the sending fee is greater than the sender user account'"'"'s financial account balance,

(5) deliver the message to the recipient user account message store if and only if the request is not denied, and

(6) transfer a portion of the sending fee between the sender and recipient financial accounts if and only if the message is delivered.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one of the plurality of user accounts stored in the database further comprises a consumer profile and wherein the recipient selection criteria comprises a consumer profile criteria.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the server is configured to transfer only an amount equal to the applicable receipt charge from the sender financial account to the recipient financial account.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the request includes a designation of funds to be paid on delivery, and the server is configured to deduct an amount equal to the designation of funds from the sender financial account and credit a portion of the designation of funds to the recipient financial account if an only if the message is delivered.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the server is further configured to send an automated message to the sender user account if and only if the request is denied.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the server is configured to transfer a portion of the sending fee to a third party if and only if the message is delivered.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the third party comprises a service provider that operates the server.

8. The system of claim 2 wherein at least one consumer profile comprises demographic information for the user account, and wherein the recipient selection criteria comprises a demographic criteria.

9. The system of claim 2 wherein at least one consumer profile comprises survey response data for the user account, and wherein the recipient selection criteria comprises a survey response criteria.

10. The system of claim 2 wherein at least one consumer profile comprises a transaction history for the user account, and wherein the recipient selection criteria comprises a transaction history criteria.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the transaction history comprises a date and a transaction type, and wherein the recipient selection criteria comprises a date range and a transaction type.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the transaction history comprises a record of purchases, each purchase record comprising a purchase type, and wherein the recipient selection criteria comprises a purchase type.

13. The system of claim 10 wherein the server is further configured to update the transaction history for a user account if the request is not denied.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the request comprises a predetermined time interval.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the request comprises a sender user account, the sender user account comprising a transaction history, and wherein the server is further configured to search the transaction history for the sender user account, and skip steps (3)-(6) for any recipient user account that was previously messaged within the predetermined time interval.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein the server is configured to repeat operations (2)-(6) at predetermined time intervals.

17. The system of claim 1 wherein each user defined transaction criteria comprises a plurality of commercial categories and each of the plurality of commercial categories comprises an associated receipt charge.

18. A method of exchanging electronic transactions between user accounts on a designated network, the method comprising:

providing at least one server, the server being in communication with a plurality of user computers via the designated network, the server further being in communication with a memory storing a database;

providing a plurality of users with a user account comprising an account identifier and a financial account that can be credited and debited by the server, acquiring data associated with a user account, the user account data comprising at least one of a receipt criteria including at least one receipt charge to be credited to a user financial account upon completion of an electronic transaction on the designated network, and a sending criteria including at least one sending fee authorized to be debited from a user financial account upon completion of an electronic transaction;

storing at least a portion of the user account data in the database;

receiving, at the server, a proposed electronic transaction from a sending user account to a plurality of recipient user accounts, the proposed electronic transaction comprising a designation of funds part and a message part, the sending user being associated with a sending user account, and each recipient user being associated with a recipient user account;

for each recipient user account, comparing at least one receipt criteria associated with the recipient user account to at least one sending criteria associated with the sending user account and disposing of the electronic transaction by at least one of two disposition modes, the first disposition mode comprising completing the proposed transaction by delivering the message part from the sending user account to the recipient user account and transferring a payment of the receipt charge from the sending user financial account to the recipient user financial account upon delivery of the message part when the receipt charge does not exceed the sending fee, the second disposition mode comprising declining the proposed electronic transaction by returning a notice to the sending user account when the receipt charge exceeds the sending fee.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein at least one of the plurality of provided user accounts further comprises a consumer profile;

wherein the proposed electronic transaction comprises a recipient selection criteria; and

wherein the recipient selection criteria comprises a consumer profile criteria.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein the server is configured to transfer only an amount equal to the applicable receipt charge from the sending user financial account to the recipient user financial account.

21. The method of claim 18 wherein the server is configured to deduct the designation of funds from the sending user financial account and credit a portion of the designation of funds to the recipient financial account if and only the first disposition mode is completed.

22. The method of claim 18 wherein the server is further configured to send an automated message to the sending user account if and only if the proposed transaction is declined.

23. The method of claim 18 wherein the server is configured to transfer a portion of the sending fee to a third party if and only if the message is delivered.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the third party comprises a service provider that operates the server.

25. The method of claim 19 wherein at least one consumer profile comprises demographic information for the user account, and wherein the recipient selection criteria comprises a demographic criteria.

26. The method of claim 19 wherein at least one consumer profile comprises survey response data for the user account, and wherein the recipient selection criteria comprises a survey response criteria.

27. The method of claim 19 wherein at least one consumer profile comprises a transaction history for the user account, and wherein the recipient selection criteria comprises a transaction history criteria.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the transaction history comprises a date and a transaction type, and wherein the recipient selection criteria comprises a date range and a transaction type.

29. The method of claim 27 wherein the transaction history comprises a record of purchases, each purchase record comprising a purchase type, and wherein the recipient selection criteria comprises a purchase type.

30. The method of claim 27 wherein the server is further configured to update the transaction history for a user account if the proposed transaction is not declined.

31. The method of claim 30 wherein the proposed transaction comprises a predetermined time interval for repeating the proposed transaction.

32. The method of claim 18 wherein the receipt criteria comprises a plurality of commercial categories, each commercial category having an associated receipt charge.

33. The method of claim 18 wherein the designation of funds part is equal to the sending fee.

34. The method of claim 18 wherein the sending criteria includes a sending fee schedule identifying a first and second sending fee for a respective first and second user account.

35. The method of claim 18 wherein the proposed transaction comprises a hyperlink made accessible to a plurality of recipient user accounts and the receipt criteria requires a recipient user to activate the hyperlink.

36. The method of claim 18 wherein the receipt criteria requires a recipient user to activate a required computer input.

37. The method of claim 18 wherein the sending criteria comprises an expiration time for completing the electronic transaction and the server is further configured to dispose of the electronic transaction by the second disposition mode when the expiration time is exceeded.

38. The method of claim 21 wherein the designation of funds part is greater than the sending fee, and the server is further configured to deduct from the sender financial account an amount equal to the receipt charge plus the difference between the designation of funds and the sending fee, and to credit a portion of the funds to the recipient financial account if and only the first disposition mode is completed.